This invention relates to the production of molded parts or articles, and more particularly, to apparatus and a method for removing scrap waste material or flash material from molded parts or articles.
Parts or articles which are produced by molding generally include scrap waste material, referred to as flash material, which must be removed from the part after the part has been molded. In some processes, the flash is removed as the part is being removed from the mold. In such processes, the flash removal is accomplished using a mechanism, commonly referred to a tail puller, which grips the flash material and causes it to be pulled off the part as the part is being removed from the mold.
In other processes, the parts are molded singularly and the flash is removed from the molded part after it has been removed from the mold. In automated processes, the molded part is removed from the mold and placed on an indexing unit which indexes the part with a trim station where the flash material is removed. Various techniques have been devised for removing flash material from molded parts in automated systems. Typically, the flash is knocked off the part, particularly when the part is rigid. Alternatively, the flash may be removed using sharp cutting surfaces or knives for cutting the flash from the part or article. The knives are held fixed relative to the cutting apparatus while the flash is cut or scraped from the part. In both cases, the part must be held firmly during the deflashing operation, and so neither of these techniques works effectively when the part or article being deflashed is flexible or is made of a relatively thin material. Moreover, these prior art processes do not provide an effective way for conveying the flash away from the mold or the cutting mechanism after it has been removed from the part, an important consideration when the flash removal process is automated and continuous.